Clarification

Examples of difficult questions might be:

• Do you support XYZ?

• When is ABC going to be ready?

• Can you do RTX payments?

These questions can be uncomfortable because it is not clear what XYZ, ABC and RTX are. Nor is It clear why these things might matter.

Back and forth Conversation are often more effective for understanding since these points can be clarified in person.

Knowing the underlying motivations within a conversation is very important.

For instance let’s say a customer is talking a lot about the need for a particular feature. Is that a real long term need driven by high understanding?

Or is it driven by say checking boxes for insurance, or a short political discussion? These things are very important to clarify.

See Narratives

A larger context usually makes it possible to link the question to topics that we are already familiar with. Sometimes we refer to this as finding a higher frame, i.e.:

• You should made a big fuss over my birthday and bought me jewelry!

• is really about → I need to feel loved and taken care of.

Better conversations shed more light on what are the real problems which need to be solved?

This is why large meetings are very difficult. Most people usually are struggling to understand the topic of conversation.

People have different understanding of concepts.

English may be a second language etc.

Fundamental beliefs may be different.

What is ‘quality’ for instance?

This leads to ideas of making meetings optional.